Analyzing meaning behind dreams

According to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke, every single person on earth has a dream.

“Dreams are a universal language, creating often elaborate images out of emotional concepts,” said Suzanne Bergmann, a licensed social worker and professional dream worker.

Though Bergmann explains that dreams are a language of their own, she also reiterated that dreams do not have definitive meanings. According to an article in the Huffington Post, it is ultimately up to the person dreaming to interpret their own dreams. Still, there is research from dream specialists that have come to several conclusions based on years of studies.

Sophomore environmental studies major Melea Prepetit is someone who enjoys researching about her own dreams because she does believe there is meaning behind them.

“Well, some people say that since we sleep a third of our lives away to consider our dreams as an alternate realities,” she said. “Since I tend to get dreams a lot, I’ve always been intrigued by them.”

Prepetit said she recalled several experiences where she had dreams about future events. For Prepetit, one particular dream stands out.

“I rarely thought of middle school, and I just had a dream about my math teacher, and I had visited the school and ran up to her and hugged her,” she said. “The next day I got something in the mail about her memorial because she passed away from breast cancer. Things like that mean something.”

Senior psychology major Ashlee Moschitta also had a similar experience as well.

“I’ve had a dream about my grandmother. She passed away from cancer, and I’m president of Colleges Against Cancer so having a dream about her led me to where I am now with how passionate I am about my club and Relay for Life,” she said.

Moschitta said because of this, she believes there is meaning behind dreams. As a psychology major, she said she does believe it is up to people’s own discretion to interpret their dreams. She said it is an interesting topic, so it’s something to keep researching.

“If you have a family member or someone close to you that has passed away, and they’re in your dream or telling you something, just something about your life, it’s giving you a sign unconsciously,” she said.

Moschitta said that even though she has had some meaningful dreams, she also has some more needed dreams as well.

“It’s ridiculous. It can go from them telling me something to we’re at a fair and we’re in ridiculous costumes or something silly,” she said.

Senior math and chemistry major Yourie Floriant said she also has similar dreams where there isn’t much meaning to them.

“There are some dreams where nothing happens,” she said. “I just have the dream and then it’s like weird because nothing ever happens.”

“There was a time when I was in Canada, and my cousin was getting married, and I had a dream that I got into a fight with someone and lost all my teeth and I was bleeding,” Floriant said. “The same night, while we were in Canada, we got news that my uncle got into a car accident. For me, that’s what my dream meant.”

According to the fact website Mental Floss, teeth falling out in dreams has been widely debated. Some experts say teeth is a symbol of confidence, so losing teeth symbolizes a loss of power. Russell Grant author of The Illustrated Dream Dictionary, said losing teeth in a dream indicates a bad omen or a broken relationship, which was what Floriant was referring to.

Another common dream that people tend to have is dreaming about being chased. Prepetit said she’s actually had dreams where she’s being chased, including one where three santa clauses were chasing her. In her dream, she said they were in red, green and blue costumes, and and they suddenly turned into priests.

Dreams where a person is being chased indicates that a person should be facing a problem that may be looming over him or her, according to an article in the Huffington Post.

To interpret her own dreams, she said she uses a phone app called Dream Moods. Dream Moods is a an interpretation app to help users analyze their own dreams. It has features such as 5700 different symbols to browse through and a built in dream journal for people to put on their calendar.

Prepetit said people might be surprised behind the meaning behind their dreams and to not to take the dreams literally.

“Sometimes, I get a lot of kissing dreams,” she said. “Usually if you have kissing dreams, and it’s a person of the same sex, and you’re heterosexual, then it means you want to incorporate some of that person’s traits into yourself.”

She said she also has dreams about zombie apocalypses and according to the app, this could mean that someone is stressed and overwhelmed. Besides these eventful dreams, she also said she has had repeating dreams over time.

Prepetit had one recurring dream that she was being shot in the mouth. She looked up the meaning and the symbol of the dream meant that someone had died or was going to die. Prepetit said she was having this reoccurring dream leading up to the Haiti earthquake in 2010 and knew her dream meant something.

“Two days ago I had a dream that a black squirrel was attacking me,” she said. “Still don’t know what it means to this day.”

When Prepetit went to look up the meaning, she said there were tons of different squirrels that had meanings behind them, but she couldn’t find one for black squirrels. While Prepetit said the phone app was helpful, she said it’s up to people to find the true meaning behind their own dreams.

“Sometimes, you’ve got to interpret dreams yourself,” she said. “Each dream feels very real to me, which is why I’m so interested in learning what dreams are about.”